Out Of Memory

When the Linux kernel runs out of memory, it will start killing processes. This occurs most frequently after you have added new mongrels, but it can happen anytime the processes on your server have exhausted the available RAM. Often mysql, mongrels, or http workers will be killed. Occasionally sshd will be killed, leaving you unable to login to the server. In that case, please submit a support ticket along with your deploy password, and we’ll restart the service for you.

You can check for “Out of Memory” errors on the server by running the dmesg command.

Generally, the problem can be dealt with by cutting down on the number of mongrels, stopping/removing memory-intensive processes, or upgrading the server’s RAM.

Check your memory usage with the buffers/cache line from ‘free -m’.
You can restart the process on the server to resolve the situation. For example:

sudo /sbin/service mysqld start
# or 
sudo /sbin/service mongrel_cluster restart

If your server is repeatedly running out of memory, it might be a good idea to install monit to keep an eye on things and restart important services as needed.